Chapter Thirteen – AthenaMichelle
The one thing I hated was a coward. Particularly, the kind of coward who was scared to face the consequences of their actions.
Even in the underworld, those types of people were easy to find.
Perhaps more so than in the civilian world, as consequences for criminals could be a long ass prison stint, or death.
However, for a traitor, there was only one form of consequence that awaited them: a slow, painful death.
I’d learned to suppress the violent streak that’d earned me my presidency, but I’d forever delight in dealing with those who fucked over me.
Fendi had three co-conspirators, dumb cunts who thought aligning with her would earn them officer positions when she reclaimed her throne.
It’d backfired on all of them, though. Fendi was dead, as well as Spikes, a newer member who’d died of her injuries during my retrieval from Felix’s cabin.
A pang went through my heart as I thought of him.
I’d spent three days torturing the other bitches, but my parting kiss with Felix hadn’t left my mind.
My revenge prevented me from searching for him, and once they were dead, I’d need to find the Bloody Femmes who’d tried to kill me.
It was tiring, and I’d barely been able to spend time with Estelle, Juno, or Bob the Biter.
Today, the remaining two would have to die, just so I could have a family day before I began the more tedious job.
Glamor, an older member who went way back with Fendi, was gagged and suspended upside down, cuts littering her nude body, and chunks of skin missing. She’d earned her name due to dedicating a fuckton of time to her looks, but right now, the bitch looked busted.
“Which one you wanna take out first, sis?” Lake asked, already informed of my plans.
Glamor’s swollen eyes filled with tears, and she shook her head frantically. Incoherent words slipped from around her gag. They were impossible to understand, but if I had to guess, she was begging for her pathetic life.
I turned to Munny, nodding to her. Unlike Glamor, the cunt was barely conscious.
Whereas I’d employed lingchi for Glamor, I’d opted to keep Munny tied to a chair and take a hammer to her joints.
A couple of punches to the head had her out of it, and I suppose withholding food and water hadn’t helped either cunt.
It was a miracle that neither had died already, and a shock that Glamor was still so coherent.
“You handle Munny first,” I ordered, leaning against the wall of our little torture chamber, lovingly nicknamed The Panic Room . Not because we hid there during a crisis, but because anyone dragged into there would be guaranteed to lose their shit. “I wanna see what Candy’s been teaching you.”
My enforcer had been busy trying to hunt down any Bloody Femme she could get her hands on, but prior to the shitshow, I’d enlisted her to show both of my sisters some of her favorite techniques.
Lake smirked, taking out the butterfly knife she always kept on her person. Twirling it, she put as much distance between herself and Munny. Then, she threw her knife, embedding it into the cunt’s throat.
“Bullseye!” she exclaimed, bowing at my polite round of applause.
Glamor let out a muffled scream, while Munny gurgled, choking on her own blood, until her body went limp.
“Impressive,” I said, walking to Munny’s corpse and pulling the knife out, the gush of blood from her throat not fazing me. Handing the weapon back to my sister, I said, “Ruthless, just like the real Aphrodite.”
Though Athena was heralded as the Greeks’ sole Goddess of War, Aphrodite, too, was seen as a Goddess of War in certain cities.
Particularly, Sparta and Taras, where she was known as Aphrodite Areia , aka, Aphrodite the Warlike .
Perhaps, Lake was due for a name change, as not only did she share the Goddess’s beauty, but her Spartan bloodlust.
Lake shrugged, wiping the blood off on her black jeans. “I have to do my namesake proud. Now it’s time you do yours justice and deal with that bitch.”
She used her chin to point at Glamor, who was sobbing hysterically. I rolled my eyes. Tears wouldn’t save her.
“Shut the fuck up,” I hissed, jabbing my fingers into a cut on her stomach and twisting, the jolt to her exposed nerve endings making her screech. “If you didn’t want to be in this goddamn room, you shouldn’t have betrayed me.”
I yanked my fingers out, wrinkling my nose as she pissed herself.
For a moment, I considered taking her gag out so she could say her final words, but I decided that would be too kind.
So, I took out my own knife. But, unlike Lake, I wasn’t feeling merciful.
Glamor had been the closest to Fendi, and since that traitor had gone and gotten herself killed, her best friend would have to face punishment in her stead.
My final form of vengeance would be quick, but painful.
I stuck my blade in Glamor’s eye; her scream was bloodcurdling even with the gag. She thrashed with more strength than she should have, the chain holding her up swaying. It did no good, and seconds later, I took out her other eye.
“Fucking ouch,” Lake said, the whiny note in her voice making me scowl over my shoulder. “You could’ve given me a warning. I hate seeing shit go into people’s eyes.”
“Feel free to leave while I finish up,” I replied, putting an end to Glamor’s useless shrieking by slitting her throat.
“Seems like that won’t be necessary,” Lake said, frowning at the gore in the room. “Can we go now? It fucking stinks in here.”
“So prissy,” I admonished, though I headed to the door and held it open for my little sister, sunlight from the nearby window streaming into the room. “After you.”
She left the room, and I followed closely behind her.
“Glamor and Munny are dead,” I announced as I entered the main room of The Haven , smirking at the whoops and hollers. “Aphrodite and I are heading home. I want their bodies gone and the room cleared by tomorrow evening.”
“You got it, Prez,” Beamer, the resident cleaner, said. “It’ll be brand fucking new by tomorrow morning.”
“Always the overachiever,” I teased, before heading to the entrance with Lake in tow, leaving my club members to deal with the bodies of the dead traitors.
The walk to the trailer was short and silent.
I’d made sure the path to the trailer park on club grounds was paved, and just a ten-minute trek from The Haven .
Some members and club ass lived in the park, though my three-bedroom triple-wide was easily the biggest, and the only one with a fenced-in yard.
If it wasn’t for Bob the Biter, I wouldn’t give a fuck about enclosing my home and just rely on the fences around the club grounds’ perimeter.
“We’re home,” Lake announced as we entered the triple-wide.
Bob immediately came running up to us, his tail wagging and tongue lolled out as he clambered for our attention. Once I scratched behind his ear, and Lake rubbed his head, he was satisfied to return to his oversized dog bed.
“Traitors are dead,” she continued when she saw Juno, who was sitting on the couch watching TV.
Juno’s lips pursed into a pout. “I should’ve been there, too.”
“You were there yesterday, so hush,” I ordered, sniffing the air as something delicious entered my nostrils. “What’s cooking?”
“Mama finally gave me her potpie recipe, so I’m making it for y’all,” Estelle said as she exited the kitchen, her Tennessee accent making her sound like an old-school southern belle. When she saw the blood on me and Lake, she frowned, crossing her arms over her chest. “Absolutely not.”
Lake cocked a brow. “What?”
“You two aren’t sitting at the table looking like that. Bathroom, now,” she ordered, pointing to the hallway.
“Still bossy, lil’ cuz,” I said, a smile tugging at my lips.
Long ago, she’d told me bossiness was the only way to get a handle on her brothers, and by the time her little sister had come along, it was too ingrained in her for it to go away.
“Now,” she reiterated, putting more emphasis on the word.
Lake and I exchanged a glance and nodded as we decided to humor her. We didn’t see her often, and in two days, she’d be back in Memphis. So, to make our little cousin happy, I headed off to my en suite bathroom, while Lake went and made use of the hallway bath.
The blood of my enemies washed down the drain, Athena could take a rest until tomorrow, allowing Michelle to return to the forefront.
By the time I emerged from my bedroom in loungewear, my hair in a messy bun, Estelle’s pie was finished cooking. Lake and Juno were already at the table, Bob lying at their feet as he pouted due to the lack of attention. Instead of being a fierce protector, he was a fussy attention whore.
“It looks delicious,” I said as Estelle set the pie in the center of the table.
“I hope it is delicious,” Estelle replied, taking her seat. “I added more spice and seasoning than Mama’s recipe had.”
Not shocking. Aunt Sheron could cook tasty food, but her spice tolerance was that of a sickly Victorian child. Extra salt and pepper were almost always needed, but once they were added, the meals she cooked were delicious.
Estelle led us in saying grace. It wasn’t something my sisters and I did during our meals, or at all.
Our parents hadn’t been devout people, and the little faith they did instill in us was destroyed by the rough way we lived.
Still, we didn’t interrupt Estelle, and when the prayer ended, we said “Amen,” more out of respect for her than the actual words.
She clapped her hands together. “Alright, we’re free to dig in!”
I smiled at the gesture. I’d always had a soft spot for Estelle, and when I looked at her, I saw the person my sisters and I could’ve been if we’d had the support she did. We hadn’t, though, so all I could do was protect the sweetness that life hadn’t stolen from my cousin.
“How are things with Aydin?” I asked around a mouthful of food.